In October, the Integrative Structural Biology theme will organise its second symposium. Jens Lagerstedt, core group member, talks to us about what the focus of the symposium will be, and how it links to to the wider research field.

What will be the focus of the symposium?

The symposium will focus on integrative structural biology and how the combination of different experimental approaches jointly can answer questions on the structure of proteins and other biomolecules and how this relates to their function. Synchrotrons and neutron-based research is central to this but also many other methods such as single particle CryoEM, NMR, mass-spectroscopy etc.

Why do you organise it now?

The first ISB symposium took place in November 2018, and was very well attended and appreciated; clearly there is a great interest in learning more and discussing possibilities in integrative structural biology. With this second ISB symposium, we now wish to provide another opportunity for interested researchers in academia and industry to get together and enjoy many great talks, poster sessions and interactions.

What do you hope to get out of it?

We hope that the meeting will spur even more interest in integrative structural biology and ideas on new ways to address scientific problems. This is also a great opportunity for us at LINXS to get more knowledge about what is needed in the field and how we can help to facilitate progress, interactions and discussion.

What do you want the attendees to take home?

To have enjoyed a lot of great science, and also shared and discussed their own research, and learned about new ways/methods on how to find answers to their life science questions. If new contacts and new collaborations are formed to jointly address a problem, that is great.

Can you tell me about how the symposium links to the research field/societal applications?

We invite academic and industry researchers as well as interested people from healthcare to the symposium. Integrative structural biology is of importance both to explain and to use the knowledge to design new drugs etc. Interaction between different stakeholders is therefore very good.